Title: In the studio with Samara Adamson-Pinczewski #ArtistsofBoroondara

Speaker: Samara Adamson-Pinczewski

My name’s Samara Adamson-Pinczewski and I’m a visual artist who lives in the City of Boroondara. I wanted to be an artist from a very early age. I was always drawing, colouring in, collecting objects and things, and arranging them in a very meticulous and idiosyncratic way. I started working with Abstraction whilst I was at university. There was a life drawing class and we were asked to represent the figure in a cubist manner, focusing on shallow space composition. It was very inventive to me and it was almost like creating my own visual language. The more I learnt, I realised that there was a history and a tradition of Abstraction and I wanted to learn as much as I could about it. I make abstract paintings, drawing, collages and constructions. I usually use oblique structures in my work as well as fragmented forms and reflective materials. This actually relates to an aspect of my personal family history. On immigration to Australia from Poland, my grandfather worked as a rag-and-bones man. Eventually he set up a scrap metal yard. My grandmother, my mother and my father worked there. I’ve seen metal my entire life. Reflective objects were brought home to decorate the house. Colours such as aluminium, copper, stainless steel, tin, lead; those colours and the reflective properties of those materials resonate with me and I’ve used them in my works to varying effects. I’m very interested in new developments in paint materials and creating scintillating optical effects for the viewer to engage with the work. Different viewpoints and angles are featured in my work. These are strategies that encourage the viewer not to stand in a static viewing position in front of the work. It is my hope by using elements such a scale, format, colour, form and also surface. These give the viewer an opportunity to interact with what they are seeing in front of them.  My paintings are labours of love. All my colours are hand mixed. I can put down anywhere between six or 21 coats. A painting will take me anywhere between a month to two months, it just depends. A painting’s finished when it feels right, when there is enough tension and mystery and ambiguity in it to make you want to keep on looking at it.

Text: Town Hall Gallery #ArtistsofBoroondara
Boroondara Arts acknowledges the support of Charles Nodram Gallery
Text: Find out more at www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/arts